Local Authority PCN - Is bailiff action correct?

[lep99]

Got a PCN from Derby CC in 2013.

 

 

Moved and was unaware they had not accepted my appeal nor given me any official notification

that they had so

 

 

bailiff left me handwritten note in June 2014 saying what was owed and his mobile number, NOT a Notice of Enforcement.

 

 

According to CAB website bailiff MUST send the notice 7 days before any action can be taken.

 

Due to my sate of mind at the time I just paid it to get the matter off my back.

 

Was the bailiff at fault for not sending the notice?

What action can I take against the council?

 

The council never officially told me they would not accept my appeal

and they also did NOT formally advise me of the right to an independent appeal which I believe is the law.

 

Many thanks.

[Jamberson]

Bailiffs didn't used to serve a notice of enforcement. That became a requirement recently - not sure of the exact date, but June 2014 was probably prior to the change.

 

You can check that out but if it's correct then it would be a dead-end.

 

You mentioned you moved, so presumably that's why you did not get correspondence from the council? So when you then say "The council never officially told me they would not accept my appeal and they also did NOT formally advise me of the right to an independent appeal" - you're implying they never issued these things.

 

Of course it's very different to say you didn't receive your mail, and they didn't send it. Which is correct? If they didn't issue paperwork to you then you have a slight chance.

 

Why are you raising this now, by the way? Have you only just paid?

[lookinforinfo]

Got a PCN from Derby CC in 2013.

 

 

Moved and was unaware they had not accepted my appeal nor given me any official notification

that they had so

 

 

bailiff left me handwritten note in June 2014 saying what was owed and his mobile number, NOT a Notice of Enforcement.

 

 

According to CAB website bailiff MUST send the notice 7 days before any action can be taken.

 

Due to my sate of mind at the time I just paid it to get the matter off my back.

 

Was the bailiff at fault for not sending the notice?

What action can I take against the council?

 

The council never officially told me they would not accept my appeal

and they also did NOT formally advise me of the right to an independent appeal which I believe is the law.

 

Many thanks.

 

When you moved did you advise the Council of your new address. If you didn't then all future correspondence from the Council and the bailiffs would still have been sent to your old address

so you have no idea what they sent you there unless you had your mail forwarded or you were able to get your mail from your old address.

 

You can check with the Council to confirm what address they were writing to you when they rejected your appeal and whether that was the same address that the bailiffs were calling at.

One would have thought that the Council would have picked up that you had moved when someone new applied to pay the Council tax on your old property.

 

There are circumstances in which you can sometimes get various fees refunded but if they didn't know you had moved it won't be easy.

Please post back the Council reply when you have explained your situation.

[Jamberson]

If someone has an unpaid PCN for 28 days, the council send off to DVLA to get the name and address of the keeper as per the day the PCN was served. That address is then set in stone, and all correspondence must go there - it is possible to change that through the statutory declaration process, but the appeal reply and NTO and other documents will go to the address which DVLA supplied, regardless of whether the person in question tells the council they had moved.

 

Also, the Council's parking dept can't swap notes with the Council Tax office. The data is all protected by DPA on a need to know basis, and Council Tax data contains much more personal info than Parking need to know. It would be useful sometimes if they could communicate with each other, but they won't.

 

The bailiff will initially try that address, but they can then go fishing for info to try and find out where the person has moved to - so the bailiff can find someone. At that point, the debtor can use the statutory declaration process. Seems like that was not pursued - payment was made instead.

[lep99]

Thanks for your reply.

 

 

I am raising this now as there has not been a reasonable opportunity to deal with it earlier. I'm confident the personal reasons for delay would be valid in court.

 

 

I read on CAB website that council has to either accept an appeal or say that they do not and tell one what to do next - as I had post redirection in place at the time I would have expected to receive these so I would be very confident to say they did not send them at all. They just sat on it, waited for time to pass and then sent in the bailiffs despite having my email address and other contact details. Nobody would reasonably ignore a PCN for £70 knowing it will rocket to over £400, well, I didn't.

 

 

I am also pretty sure the bailiff acted after the change in the law (change was 6 April 2014) and should have issued an enforcement notice 7 days before action but none was, just the note as previously described. (I have seen what an enf notice looks like and never got anything like that.)

 

 

I have asked the council to evidence the dates they claim documents were sent but nothing heard yet.

[Bailiff Advice]

Lep6

 

A similar complaint as yours was quite recently taken to the Local Government Ombudsman and regrettably, they ruled that as the complaint was made more than 12 months after payment was made that they cannot investigate.

[Jamberson]

 

I read on CAB website that council has to either accept an appeal or say that they do not and tell one what to do next - as I had post redirection in place at the time I would have expected to receive these so I would be very confident to say they did not send them at all. They just sat on it, waited for time to pass and then sent in the bailiffs despite having my email address and other contact details. Nobody would reasonably ignore a PCN for £70 knowing it will rocket to over £400, well, I didn't.

 

That is very unlikely. In any case, all the extra fees go to the bailiff, so the council would gain nothing by doing what you suggest.

 

Have you asked the council yet? Its far more likely they sent their documents in "do not redirect" envelopes. In any case, the issue is whether they sent them, not whether they were received - try and find out what happened.